The North Texas political activist and vocal Tea Party voice has long been forthcoming about her past, which included being arrested in 1997 days before turning 21 on a misdemeanor charge of shoplifting. She had her young son with her at the time.

In episode 105 of Sisters in Law, Pierson said she was arrested for shoplifting but not convicted.

“I stole clothes to get a job, yes,” she said.

Pierson, who was booked into the Plano City Jail, ultimately received deferred adjudication on the charge.

New assignments

New appointees to the House Sunset Advisory Committee include a Tarrant County man.

Former Fort Worth City Councilman Bill Meadows was named to the committee as the House’s public appointee. He is chairman emeritus of HUB International Insurance Services, according to a statement from House Speaker Joe Straus.

Straus named state Rep. Larry Gonzales, R-Round Rock, as chairman of the commission, and appointed state Reps. Dan Flynn, R-Van, and Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, to serve on the committee.

The commission gives officials a chance to periodically review state agencies and decide whether they should continue to exist.

Indie film connects Texans

Former New York Democratic Congressman Bob Mrazek has gone back to his first love: filmmaking.

After leaving the House in 1993, Mrazek took up writing and became a successful author, penning fiction and nonfiction books, many focused on the Civil War. But what kept nagging at him was the need to make a movie since he left film school in London in 1968.

The result: The Congressman, a film about something he knows about that he wrote and directed that stars some big names: Treat Williams as the lawmaker and George Harrison, in a brilliant turn, as a sleazy lobbyist.

The film is getting some buzz and Mrazek will be featured on some national programs including the Today Show, CNN and MSNBC.

At a screening at the Motion Picture Association of America in April, Mrazek was joined by some current and former colleagues, including Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and former U.S. Rep. Mike Andrews, who represented Houston but is originally from Fort Worth. A still-proud Arlington Heights High School Yellow Jacket, Andrews played football. He has been a Washington lobbyist since his failed U.S. Senate bid in 1994, but his sister, Ann Curry, lives in Fort Worth. Andrews is with King & Spalding law firm in D.C.

And Andrews, 72, who was in the same congressional class year as Mrazek, elected in 1982, revealed to PoliTex his own Hollywood connection: He went on a date with Farrah Fawcett when both were at the University of Texas.

She was the greatest, over the top, blind date I ever had.

Former U.S. Rep. Mike Andrews said of Farrah Fawcett, noting though that she apparently had eyes for the Texas Longhorn quarterback instead of him.

That wasn’t the only Texas connection the film generated: The central theme of the movie is how a congressman runs afoul of his constituents and the media by refusing to go along with reciting the pledge of allegiance on the House floor — a daily ritual since 1988. Well, then-U.S Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, did that in 1993, on Flag Day no less, likening the ritual to a Nazi salute.

Mrazek, informed of the real-life flap of the congressman and the pledge, said that he had not known about it. Art imitates life.

Reminder

The Property Tax Reform and Relief select committeeof the Texas Senate is holding a hearing in Tarrant County on Wednesday at the University of Texas at Arlington (E.H. Hereford University Center, Rosebud Theater, 300 W. First St.) — to hear from homeowners and taxpayers. Invited testimony begins at 8 a.m.; public testimony begins at 10 a.m.

Upcoming political dates

April 25-May 3: Early voting for next month’s city and school elections